only a 48-hour truce between israel and hamas. so there's a positive moves ahead going on trying to end this diplomatically. but not everybody is betting on that right now, alex. >> sounds like all the pieces are on the chess board for sure. thank you very much, martin fletcher. >> let's get some perspective on this crisis. joining me is military analyst general mccaffrey. is there a danger this could turn into a larger middle east war? >> no question. i think we're one step shorter of an all out ground operation in the gaza. i don't see how the israelis could top rate continued threat to huge parts of the civilian population. and then in the background, of course, we have the iranians and hezbollah on the lebanese southern border. the israelis are quite vulnerable to these rocket strikes. fit went to all-out war there would be significant israeli losses. >> all right, general, would the u.s. get involved militarily if this does escalate? >> i don't think so. i think the iranians would be loathe to actually start firing their long